his eye on the frightened cowboy as well as on the
stranger with the bag.

'You wicked boy,' said Douglas. 'It was you that stole the chickens. I
heard everything you said.'

'I will never do it again,' cried the boy, blubbering. 'Don't tell
Master, young gentleman, it won't happen again.'

'No, that it won't,' put in a new voice, as Farmer Wilkins arrived
unexpectedly on the scene. 'I will take good care of that. Call your dog
off, if you please, Master Douglas; I don't much like the looks of him.'

Douglas secured Bully, and the farmer seized the dishonest cowboy by
the collar. The stranger was quick to take advantage of the moment, and
before anybody could say 'knife,' he had slipped behind the barn, and
away over the fields.

'Let him go,' said the farmer, who was too fat to want to run. 'He has
had a fright. As for you.' turning to the cowboy, 'I have an account to
settle with you, before I send you off. I am much obliged to you, young
sir,' he said, turning to Douglas, 'and very sorry for the trouble you
have been caused.'

'Well, look here,' said Douglas, 'will you do something to oblige me?'

'Why, yes,' said the farmer.

[Illustration: "'Watch him!' said Douglas."]

'I wish you would let him off pretty easily. You won't send him away,
will you?'

'I just will,' said the man, hotly; 'and give him up to the police too.'

'Oh, please, don't do that,' Douglas, pleaded, 'to oblige me. Give him
one more chance.'

Farmer Wilkins scratched his head.

'It's perfectly ridiculous,' he said; 'but there, seeing that you have
got a say in the matter, so to speak, I don't know but what--'

And the cowboy gave Douglas such a grateful look that he could not help
feeling that there was still some hope of his turning out all right in
the end.

[Illustration: "A Madi village being removed."]

'You see,' Douglas afterwards explained to his father, 'I felt so
awfully glad when I found that I should not have to send Bully away,
that I didn't want to pay the boy out in the least. And I think it
would do him more good to be forgiven than if he was sent to prison,
don't you.' And Father thought it would.

MOVABLE ROOFS.

[Illustration]

The roof is by far the most important part of the houses or huts of
savages. It is the part upon which most labour is spent, and it is the
part which is taken most care of when the whole house is finished. Many
huts are, in fact, little more than a roof borne up by a few